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Half of the world’s population could be short-sighted by 2050, research shows.

That’s a surge from the current 34 per cent that currently struggles with seeing distances.

The reason for the sudden decline in eyesight abilities is too much time spent looking at computer and smartphone screens and not enough time spent outside, according to the research published in the Opthalmology journal.

It predicts that 4.8 billion people - or 49.8 per cent of the world’s population - will require glasses by 2050. In 2010, 28.3 per cent of the global populus - or 2 billion people - suffered from short-sightedness, also known as myopia. So technology is nearly doubling the myopic population.

The changes “are...

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